In other zombie news, there's an anthology currently accepting submissions of novellas (20K-40K word stories) called Ever Afters; fairy tale retellings with zombies. I have a great idea for one, but the catch is that it's a romance/erotica collection. I don't do too well at that; at least not in my opinion. Relic and The Odic Touch both have romance in them, but I wouldn't classify either in that genre. After all, doesn't every story with more than one character of a particular orientation and corresponding gender have an element of romance?
Fellow Firefly Phyllis (how I adore alliteration) encouraged me to write the Ever After, and I'm tempted. I don't know if I can stretch it out to 20K words, though, and that's considering my problem with brevity! After all, most fairy tales are relatively short, and especially the one I’ve chosen. Still, I bet mine would be the only story based on a fairy tale that didn’t have more than one human character in it. hehe Oh sure, somebody could give the traditionally small child a love interest, but that's mangling the original story to make it sappy.
Seeing how there's no necrophilia allowed, there’s only one way I can think of that would allow me to do it... but it is doable. Like I said earlier, though, I just don’t know if I can stretch it out to a minimum of 20K words. Guess I won't know for sure unless I try... so I'll get on that.
I've been trying different things to overcome my mental block. One tip I read is to change routine. Lately, I've started working out again, drinking less soda, listening to some different music than my usual favorites, and have been reading more short stories as opposed to YA novels. So yeah, I've changed my routine, with one exception. I still spend a large part of my time on Facebook. I can't very well write if I'm always distracted by the internet. I think I'm going to start shutting off the internet on my laptop for at least two hours every day so that I can do other stuff on the computer; namely, writing.
That long-ass bus ride I'm going on in less than four weeks may give me the perfect opportunity. I now have several audiobooks that I could listen to on the ride, but I'd better use the 3-hour battery life to write uninterrupted. It could work. But that's next month. I need to write this month. Maybe I'll try in a notebook... That's a good idea. I'll get right on that.